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Title: Calico Captive
Author: Elizabeth George Speare
Published: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020 (1957)
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 280
Total Page Count: 508,910
Text Number: 1834
Read Because: recommended in 2016 by lareinenoire in case you were wondering what the turnaround on my TBR can be like; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Like many readers, The Witch of Blackbird Pond is the Speare I grew up with, but this would have been an easy book to imprint on if I'd encountered it at the right age: a sort of walking tour of the French and Indian War from the fictionalized perspective of a real girl captured in an Indian raid in 1754. Speare maintains period-appropriate prejudices between all social groups, but the protagonist's exposure to a diversity of peoples, classes, and cultures forces her to grow increasingly open-minded. Not perfect, which is to say both that it's dated and that the protagonist doesn't make a complete transformation, but a lot more sensitive and tasteful than I feared. And there's a certain degree of wish fulfillment both in being forced to encounter such a diversity of cultures and in the protagonist's persistence, survival, and increasing adaptability.
Title: Ella Enchanted (Ella Enchanted Book 1)
Author: Gail Carson Levine
Narrator: Eden Riegel
Published: Books on Tape, 2006 (1997)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 240
Total Page Count: 509,350
Text Number: 1836
Read Because: now we're browsing available now in the children's literature tag, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A Cinderella retelling with a literal bent: Ella is cursed by an overly ambitious fairy to be obedient, and this curse only becomes more of a liability after her mother dies and Ella is thrust into the wider world. This is one of those childhood classics that missed me, so I'm delighted to be charmed by it, even without the benefit nostalgia. It's not perfect - the body shaming in particular feels like the thing one hopes we wouldn't put in MG/YA now. But I'm a sucker for the logical, daily, petty consequences of the fantastic and speculative, and this is all about that: Ella must obey any command, intentionally or unintentionally given, feasible or infeasible, safe or not at all, and has developed a rebellious, independent personality as a result. Unfortunately, the curse's resolution, which thematically satisfying and empowering, doesn't sell me; within the framework of mundane, realistic consequences for magical elements, the curse breaking feels insubstantial and too easy.
Nonetheless, a delight. Playful, spirited, set in a distinctly strange and quirky world, and it gives me that same feeling as the premise of Dungeon Meshi or Beastars or a Pokemon Nuzlocke: wait, if that were a real, living part of the world, wouldn't the ramifications be a mess and an half? Yes! Turns out: yes.
(The audiobook, narr. Eden Riegel, blindsided me with first person Ella-/little girl-voice and I almost DNF'd three minutes in; but, to my surprise, it's not grating and works great.)
Title: Treasure Island
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Narrator: Alfred Molina
Published: Listening Library, 2007 (1882)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 290
Total Page Count: 509,640
Text Number: 1837
Read Because: as above, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Sometimes a classic single-handedly explains an entire genre/set of tropes, doesn't it? And not just by popularizing them, but by embracing them with such ridiculous enthusiasm that it still feels like an indulgence today. This flagged a little for me at the midway point, which is equal parts no Long John :( and the vagaries of plot, but it's a dozen actiony set pieces and every pirate trope one could want wrapped in a phenomenal atmosphere, and revives when Long John Silver returns to the page. What a character! - larger than life, and then rendered deeply alive. I've seen Treasure Planet umpteen times, and kept thinking, yeah, no wonder they could borrow the premise, but the real gold is the likeability of this character.
Author: Elizabeth George Speare
Published: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020 (1957)
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 280
Total Page Count: 508,910
Text Number: 1834
Read Because: recommended in 2016 by lareinenoire in case you were wondering what the turnaround on my TBR can be like; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Like many readers, The Witch of Blackbird Pond is the Speare I grew up with, but this would have been an easy book to imprint on if I'd encountered it at the right age: a sort of walking tour of the French and Indian War from the fictionalized perspective of a real girl captured in an Indian raid in 1754. Speare maintains period-appropriate prejudices between all social groups, but the protagonist's exposure to a diversity of peoples, classes, and cultures forces her to grow increasingly open-minded. Not perfect, which is to say both that it's dated and that the protagonist doesn't make a complete transformation, but a lot more sensitive and tasteful than I feared. And there's a certain degree of wish fulfillment both in being forced to encounter such a diversity of cultures and in the protagonist's persistence, survival, and increasing adaptability.
Title: Ella Enchanted (Ella Enchanted Book 1)
Author: Gail Carson Levine
Narrator: Eden Riegel
Published: Books on Tape, 2006 (1997)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 240
Total Page Count: 509,350
Text Number: 1836
Read Because: now we're browsing available now in the children's literature tag, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A Cinderella retelling with a literal bent: Ella is cursed by an overly ambitious fairy to be obedient, and this curse only becomes more of a liability after her mother dies and Ella is thrust into the wider world. This is one of those childhood classics that missed me, so I'm delighted to be charmed by it, even without the benefit nostalgia. It's not perfect - the body shaming in particular feels like the thing one hopes we wouldn't put in MG/YA now. But I'm a sucker for the logical, daily, petty consequences of the fantastic and speculative, and this is all about that: Ella must obey any command, intentionally or unintentionally given, feasible or infeasible, safe or not at all, and has developed a rebellious, independent personality as a result. Unfortunately, the curse's resolution, which thematically satisfying and empowering, doesn't sell me; within the framework of mundane, realistic consequences for magical elements, the curse breaking feels insubstantial and too easy.
Nonetheless, a delight. Playful, spirited, set in a distinctly strange and quirky world, and it gives me that same feeling as the premise of Dungeon Meshi or Beastars or a Pokemon Nuzlocke: wait, if that were a real, living part of the world, wouldn't the ramifications be a mess and an half? Yes! Turns out: yes.
(The audiobook, narr. Eden Riegel, blindsided me with first person Ella-/little girl-voice and I almost DNF'd three minutes in; but, to my surprise, it's not grating and works great.)
Title: Treasure Island
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Narrator: Alfred Molina
Published: Listening Library, 2007 (1882)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 290
Total Page Count: 509,640
Text Number: 1837
Read Because: as above, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Sometimes a classic single-handedly explains an entire genre/set of tropes, doesn't it? And not just by popularizing them, but by embracing them with such ridiculous enthusiasm that it still feels like an indulgence today. This flagged a little for me at the midway point, which is equal parts no Long John :( and the vagaries of plot, but it's a dozen actiony set pieces and every pirate trope one could want wrapped in a phenomenal atmosphere, and revives when Long John Silver returns to the page. What a character! - larger than life, and then rendered deeply alive. I've seen Treasure Planet umpteen times, and kept thinking, yeah, no wonder they could borrow the premise, but the real gold is the likeability of this character.
